1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device and method for ferrofluid power generator and cooling system, especially to a device and method applied to a ferrofluid power generator and cooling performed by the phase change of fluid that may remove waste heat generated from an electronic device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Since IC was invented in 1959, IC fabrication technology has advanced tremendously. It is expected that an era of nano (nm) technology will come in the 21st century. Micro electronic devices have a huge impact on companies and systems because they added chip functions within a common space causing increased heat, which is a big challenge to the engineers and researchers. It is predictable that more functions embedded in a chip, require more cooling.
For either a personal computer or notebook, cooling is always an issue. Although cooling fans are already installed on a typical computer, they increase weight, consume extra power, and are not very effective. With the increased processing speed, the computer generates more waste heat. For a CPU (central processing unit) made by either INTEL or AMD, cooling must be done effectively, or the computer will become unstable, dead, or even burnt.
A notebook computer is convenient, light, and portable, consequently, it is preferably made as small and light as possible. Therefore, an interior of the notebook is always very limited. The most power-consuming component of a typical notebook is the central processing unit (CPU). The higher the processing speed, the more power consumed by CPU. Especially for a new generation Pentium 4 processor, much more power is consumed then Pentium 3 processor or Celeron model, therefore generating more heat.
Consequently, current manufacturers of electronic devices, especially for producers of notebook, are anxious to solve this heat-dissipating problem of the electronic component. As shown in FIG. 1, the traditional way to dissipate heat is to arrange a fan 11 and heat-dissipating fin 12 on a central processing unit (CPU) 10, such that CPU waste heat is conducted to the large area of heat-dissipating fin 12, then forced convection is performed by the fan 11.
Currently, for most notebooks, a CPU-attached fan (as shown in FIG. 1) and a system fan are installed, but for notebooks with Pentium 4 CPU, this method is not only power consuming (the consuming power ranges from 1.6 W to 7.7 W, the average is around 4.5 W) but also very noisy (the level of noise is around 39 dBA). Furthermore, the poor cooling efficiency of this type of cooling fan is far from perfect (cooling efficiency is only 0.1 W/cm2) because of the limited heat-dissipation capacity of forced convection.
According to the shortcomings of aforementioned prior arts, the inventor proposes a device and method fo ferrofluid power generator and cooling system, such that the heat-dissipating problem of notebook may be resolved effectively, wherein the waste heat generated from the CPU may be applied as an energy source for power generating, such that the double effects of cooling and power saving of a notebook are achieved.